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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Today I went to a rather dull training session for a new program I'll be using on the job some day in the unknown future. Most of the other attendees appeared to be as enthused about the two hour session as I was, and after the third technical error, I realized this was a good time to do a little discreet people watching.

So what do people do when they're bored? Here is what I observed:-twist jewelry-rub nose, lips, facial hair-twist in chair/roll shoulders-spin pen, tapping the eraser on the table at every rotation-chew/twist hair-pick teeth (ewww!)-tap fingers to thumb-pick at clothing seams

Nothing too extraordinary or out of the ordinary in this bunch of bored mannerisms, but it is always a good idea to keep a running list of possible non-verbal communication cues. After all, characters are made of many small things.